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Speaker 1: Afro Tech World. Will Campbell, the CEO at Quantity and

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Speaker 1: Associates and award winning creative agency. He's on the virtual stage.

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Speaker 1: He discussed how M and A mergers and acquisitions can

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Speaker 1: play a pivotal role in helping you grow your business

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Speaker 1: and achieve your vision. I want to talk about why, um, briefly,

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Speaker 1: mergers and acquisitions were so important, especially for multicultural companies

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Speaker 1: and for the black businesses. Is we need to create larger,

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Speaker 1: more influential companies. So you might say, as an entrepreneur

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Speaker 1: or a founder, UM, hey, you know, my goal is

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Speaker 1: not to be some massive company. UM. I really just

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Speaker 1: want to pursue my passion. You know, I really want

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Speaker 1: to just um if I could change one life, UM,

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Speaker 1: I've done my job. UM. I just want to make

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Speaker 1: something that's right for you know, my family. And that's

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Speaker 1: all great. But at the same time, the business community

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Speaker 1: needs you. We need your ideas, we need your hustle,

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Speaker 1: we need your innovation, and we need you to create larger,

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Speaker 1: more influential companies. UM. No matter what type of company

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Speaker 1: you are, is it helps you deepen the capacity that

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Speaker 1: drives your mission. UM. So as a visionary, as a

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Speaker 1: person with an idea m n A can become an

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Speaker 1: incredible growth strategy that gives more capacity, of more foundation

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Speaker 1: to what your overall missions. I'm will Lucas, Mrs Black Tech,

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Speaker 1: Green Money. I want to answer this you to some

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Speaker 1: of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds in

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Speaker 1: brilliant ideas. If you're black in building or simply using

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Speaker 1: tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you.

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Speaker 1: Elliot Robinson, his partner had Best of Me Invented Partners.

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Speaker 1: He has fifteen years of international experience investing and partnering

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Speaker 1: with world class entrepreneurs and the technology companies that they lead.

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Speaker 1: He spent six years focused on Series A and B investments,

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Speaker 1: followed by seven years and county focused on growth stays,

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Speaker 1: Series C, D and E opportunities. I asked Elliott about

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Speaker 1: how cloud computing in the Asia COVID might accelerate innovation

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Speaker 1: in stubborn industries. So I oftentimes like to to leverage

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Speaker 1: a quote from one of my favorite CEOs. You know,

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Speaker 1: before I joined best Mer as a partner in twelve Ventures,

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Speaker 1: which was Microsoft Global Venture punt and in that role,

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Speaker 1: I was lucky to spend some time with Sashi Nondella,

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Speaker 1: who's still the CEO of Microsoft, and it was probably

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Speaker 1: maybe like three months ago after earnings follower. During an

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Speaker 1: earnings follower, Satia said, you know, we've seen more digital

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Speaker 1: transformation decisions and initiatives being taken by our client base

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Speaker 1: and customers in the last two months than we have

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Speaker 1: in the last two years. And what does that really mean. UM,

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Speaker 1: that means there's been some kind of legacy industries that

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Speaker 1: have bought software in a certain way for two plus decades,

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Speaker 1: you know, on prim software where people still have to

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Speaker 1: come to your premise, sit there and like swap out

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Speaker 1: the CDs or download things onto your system. UM. But

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Speaker 1: now with with you know, the proliferation of cloud computing,

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Speaker 1: you can do all of that remotely. You can continuously

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Speaker 1: update and release new software. So when Satia says he's

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Speaker 1: seen more digital transformation in the last two months in

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Speaker 1: the last few years, what he's really saying is, you know,

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Speaker 1: powered by UM, things like AWS and Azure and g CP,

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Speaker 1: folks are just really pushing cloud software applications to the forefront,

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Speaker 1: every every part of the stack, remembrastructure to platform to

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Speaker 1: kind of the software front inside UM. So for me,

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Speaker 1: you know, COVID has been an interesting thing because cloud

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Speaker 1: was already moved quickly. But now everyone's working from home.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're working from home now, at least on

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Speaker 1: the tech company side, we might be working from home

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Speaker 1: like indefinitely or at least this remote first kind of

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Speaker 1: work from home virtual world. So the areas that we're seeing, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, a lot of movement is you know, we

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Speaker 1: call it future of work, but what does that really mean.

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Speaker 1: That means, you know, people that are building distributed teams,

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Speaker 1: startup founders in the ecosystem today, there was this thing

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Speaker 1: where you know, you might have to move to a

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Speaker 1: really cool city like l a to find, you know,

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Speaker 1: talent that you can hire and build your team. That's

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Speaker 1: not necessarily the case right now or the future. It's

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Speaker 1: kind of been like that the last few years. It's

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Speaker 1: been some companies that started that way. But now you

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Speaker 1: can build a team be totally distributed. Just in the stakes.

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Speaker 1: You could have you know, headquarters quote unquote in l

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Speaker 1: a Iron, New York, Austin. You know, there's some great

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Speaker 1: tech clubs like Detroit and Atlanta that are really bubbling up.

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Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of software tools that most startups

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Speaker 1: need to help man, is that how do you do

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Speaker 1: remote learning, remote sharing? Of course, I think we're on

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Speaker 1: Zoom today, and you know, they just announced a bunch

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Speaker 1: of new kind of integrations and tool sets to make

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Speaker 1: you know, more of a remote office environment, UM even

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Speaker 1: more effective. So we think about things like future of

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Speaker 1: work with productivity tools, UM, knowledge sharing tools, even down

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Speaker 1: to the back office. That's actually one area that I'm

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Speaker 1: really excited about. So companies that are dealing with UM

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Speaker 1: international payroll, which is a space that we've been spending

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Speaker 1: a lot of time, or distributed payroll, distributed hr UM,

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Speaker 1: distributed you know, accounting software. All of these things are

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Speaker 1: now going from in office to in the cloud, and

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Speaker 1: the whole definition of what is an office, I think

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Speaker 1: is changing. The last thing I'll say on this this topic,

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Speaker 1: UM knowing a couple of folks from the Afrotech team.

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Speaker 1: One of the coolest things about afro Tech for me

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Speaker 1: has just been as an outsider looking at the office culture.

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Speaker 1: It looks like the most fun place to work UM

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Speaker 1: at the African American venture capitalists. I can go weeks

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Speaker 1: without you know, necessarily seeing someone else that looks like

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Speaker 1: it was a remarkable place. Often if I could work

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Speaker 1: out of it's probably Afro text office, but now they're remote.

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Speaker 1: So how do you take such a unique culture, UM.

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Speaker 1: I think it's called like wind down Wednesdays or Fridays

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Speaker 1: or something something really cool like that. But how do

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Speaker 1: you pull that into zoom? How do you pull that

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Speaker 1: into you know, like a hopping and environment and make

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Speaker 1: it cool, bring the music in, bring the culture in. Um.

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Speaker 1: And I'm really excited about some of the opportunities that

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Speaker 1: are coming there. It's in that respect, UM, how fast

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Speaker 1: our companies growing today? You know, beat with the ability

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Speaker 1: that the efficiencies that cloud computing provides. And how does

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Speaker 1: COVID change that? So if you look at two years ago,

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Speaker 1: how fast companies? How does that scale? Exceptional question? And

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Speaker 1: you said two things that I'm going to pick on.

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Speaker 1: Not only are companies able to move faster? Uh and

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Speaker 1: kind of a remote first environment if you're will in

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Speaker 1: the hustle, you know, I actually think it's it's kind

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Speaker 1: of a unique time. UM. For underserved founders. I don't

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Speaker 1: like the whole underrepresentative or minority. I think it's a

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Speaker 1: it's a trash term. We're just underserved. UM. So for

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Speaker 1: underserved founders, I actually you know, you can take two

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Speaker 1: sides of the coin. From a funding perspective, it's always

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Speaker 1: been tough for us, right um, and perhaps in a

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Speaker 1: world where you can't necessarily spend time face to face

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Speaker 1: teams to know people, that will be tougher. But from

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Speaker 1: an operational standpoint, you can actually take a lot more

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Speaker 1: meetings now. Um. You know, if I think about companies

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Speaker 1: here in the Bay Area, in in l A. For example,

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Speaker 1: when I used to fly into l A, I can

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Speaker 1: only take three to four meetings a day because traffic

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Speaker 1: was crazy. I try to stay at Vennis Panta Monica

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Speaker 1: kind of a hub, but I love places like Culver City.

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Speaker 1: I still love West Hollywood, and it would take me

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Speaker 1: forever to get around. Now with with Zoom and more

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Speaker 1: of the remote work culture, you can bang out calls

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Speaker 1: from seven am to seven pm any time zone. I'm

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Speaker 1: on calls at eleven pm with my team and you're

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Speaker 1: been tel Aviv. I started my day at six am

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Speaker 1: with my partner in Tel Aviv. We've got you know,

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Speaker 1: um folks in China. Now we've got two offices in

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Speaker 1: New York. So the whole idea of what your schedule

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Speaker 1: looked like has changed. So typically where you are time

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Speaker 1: constrained in a physical, face to face environment. All those

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Speaker 1: things have moved. So again, picking on your first word

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Speaker 1: of growth, I think you can you can take more

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Speaker 1: business development, more potential customer pipeline meetings, and a way

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Speaker 1: you could before. And then the second word that you use,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick on his efficiency. Um, so I think

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Speaker 1: everyone's business from like just a fixed cost basis has changed. Right,

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Speaker 1: Like you know, you you might not need that office space.

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Speaker 1: While it might be advantageous for you to have face

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Speaker 1: to face time with your employees and your employee base

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Speaker 1: to build that culture, maybe doing it remote is easier.

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Speaker 1: People certainly aren't flying nearly as much last year. I

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Speaker 1: think I logged like a hundred twenty nights and hotels.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm at zero. Well, actually I'm ethnically at like

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Speaker 1: a couple. Um my wife, I took a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a vacation just to get a change of scenery.

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Speaker 1: But um, you know a lot of the fixed costs

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Speaker 1: that are in an operation are now changed. It's not

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Speaker 1: that they're gone, it's just changed. So where founders may

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Speaker 1: have raised a million dollars in their seed round or um,

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Speaker 1: maybe a super angel around a year ago, and you

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Speaker 1: have these like fixed costs to build things out. Now

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Speaker 1: if everything remote and your ability to hire and lower

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Speaker 1: costs gels and cities where the talent pools are just

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Speaker 1: as good or sometimes even better, you know you can

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Speaker 1: pull that money out and you knows is under served founders.

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Speaker 1: That's that's kind of like one of our skill sets

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Speaker 1: we've always made more apt less. So I'm pretty excited

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Speaker 1: about some of those prospects as well. That's a great

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Speaker 1: um t up to my next question, because it was

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Speaker 1: seem that because of the scale and relatively low cost

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Speaker 1: of cloud computing, um in the efficiencies that it provides,

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Speaker 1: it would that startups may need less to do more things. Right. Um,

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Speaker 1: but is that capital just being redeployed elsewhere versus how

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Speaker 1: it would have historically been deployed against those fixed costs etcetera,

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Speaker 1: you know, travel or those things because the prices aren't

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Speaker 1: necessarily going down. Yeah, that's a good point. Um. The

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Speaker 1: way I look at it is, Uh, if you're cutting

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Speaker 1: let's just say your annual budget for your startup is

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Speaker 1: let's just say that salaries for a couple of people. Um,

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Speaker 1: maybe you've reduced your office space or gotten rid of it.

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Speaker 1: And if you've freed up just even a hundred brands

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Speaker 1: out of your budget year over year in COVID versus

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Speaker 1: pre COVID, there's a bunch of different things you can

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Speaker 1: do with that. Um. You know, what I've really liked

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Speaker 1: is the whole gig economy has always been a thing,

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Speaker 1: but I think in COVID it's even different. So you

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Speaker 1: can try new things on the marketing side, on the

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Speaker 1: biz dev side, on the pr side, that perhaps you

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Speaker 1: couldn't have done before because you either needed it in

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Speaker 1: how or you know, the business has been working a

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Speaker 1: certain way for a couple of years, so a smaller

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Speaker 1: business couldn't have got the attention of a marketing or

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Speaker 1: pr um kind of shop in the way that it

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Speaker 1: can't now where everything is discerned mediated. So I think

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Speaker 1: it's it's down to the business. To your comment of

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Speaker 1: prices haven't come down, that's certainly the case because everyone

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Speaker 1: is trying to meet their their top line revenue goals.

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Speaker 1: So while prices haven't changed, the one thing I can

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Speaker 1: say is negotiating terms have changed. So in this world

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Speaker 1: have been certainty. There's a lot of software and cloud

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Speaker 1: software tools that said hey, this is a minimum one

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Speaker 1: year commitment. A lot of things have changed in COVID

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Speaker 1: where they said, okay, well, everyone's business is kind of

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Speaker 1: up in the air. You know, why don't we give

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Speaker 1: the first three months away free, or why don't you

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Speaker 1: sign up for a year, but you don't have to

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Speaker 1: pay us anything for the first six months. We just

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Speaker 1: want to keep you locked in UM. If you're on

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Speaker 1: kind of the accounting or controller side of a business,

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Speaker 1: as as some of these software licenses come up to renew,

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Speaker 1: a certainly be thinking about, you know, renegotiating. I'm never

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Speaker 1: gonna tell you that you know hard renegotiating and think

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Speaker 1: you're gonna get fifty off. But you know a lot

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Speaker 1: of companies that weren't potentially working UM with customers a

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Speaker 1: year ago, and in COVID there are a lot more

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Speaker 1: open to negotiating. So not just the fixed costs that

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Speaker 1: have come out during COVID of of being virtual, but

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Speaker 1: even though those same kind of virtual class software tools

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Speaker 1: I've talked about, and you're I've been discussing, you can

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Speaker 1: go back to the drawing board and say, hey, beyond

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Speaker 1: just a ten or fifteent haircut until things get back

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Speaker 1: to normal, maybe we can change some of the payment terms,

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Speaker 1: and that's another way to kind of extend your your

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Speaker 1: cat lun way. So let's think about like prices coming

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Speaker 1: down from a different perspective own, because I'm not a VC,

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Speaker 1: but it would appear to me that you know, buy

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Speaker 1: in to get in on these deals hasn't come down

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Speaker 1: either with regards to you know that capital being more

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Speaker 1: flexibly UM deployed. So how how can you how do

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Speaker 1: you read that? Look, we're not doing as much you

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Speaker 1: know in these FI cost these travel expenses, you know, UM,

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Speaker 1: but the prices of getting in on deals hasn't reduced. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's this weird macro thing that happened, and it's really

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Speaker 1: a dual side of equation. So one UM, the last

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Speaker 1: six to twelve months, more capital has been raised, are

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Speaker 1: bigger funds have been raised than ever before UM. And

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Speaker 1: then the other thing that happened on the other side

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Speaker 1: of the equation is unfortunately in COVID there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of businesses that were impacted, but it's super VOLADI. So

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Speaker 1: what I mean by that is UM an aggregate businesses

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Speaker 1: are just dealing with uncertainty. So that means there's less

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Speaker 1: companies that are still either hitting plan or beating plan.

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Speaker 1: So on one side, you've got more capital that needs

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Speaker 1: to go into these companies than ever. On the other side,

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Speaker 1: you might have it's not that like companies are failing,

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Speaker 1: but you might have a smaller basket of companies that

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Speaker 1: are really thriving in COVID who would be either figured

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Speaker 1: it out. They might be in a market or industry

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Speaker 1: vertical that's actually got a COVID tailwind versus a headwind.

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Speaker 1: So there's more capital than other going after a smaller

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Speaker 1: subset of opportunities. Therefore, you know, just to find demand.

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Speaker 1: The prices have come up um, but look at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, like valuations, um, they're certainly meaningful

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Speaker 1: in every company's like every entrepreneurs, like every term early

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Speaker 1: team's life, because it has to do with delution in

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Speaker 1: your own equity and what you own. What I would

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Speaker 1: really be advising founders on is and this doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: change in COVID. But if some of the funds that

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Speaker 1: one spend time with you pre COVID, now all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden one has spend time with you, like you

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Speaker 1: need to ask yourself why that is and that could

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Speaker 1: be on both sides. That could be they think you're um,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're seeing some COVID headwinds and now it's

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Speaker 1: like a good opportunity to get in cheap or cheaper

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Speaker 1: than they think it would be, or you're really seeing

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Speaker 1: some tail winds and now they're all over you. I'm

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Speaker 1: just like a very values based person. So the question

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Speaker 1: is if they weren't spending time with you when things

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Speaker 1: were good, like you know, perhaps that's not the right

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Speaker 1: fit for you and your company and your your core

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Speaker 1: founding team for the next two or three years. Just

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Speaker 1: really try to think about that fit and we're also

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Speaker 1: The last comment I'll make on this is we're going

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Speaker 1: into a really unique time in this country. Has been

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Speaker 1: the craziest year I think all of the experience, certainly

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Speaker 1: in my adult life, and all that means is uncertainty,

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Speaker 1: and every kind of CEO and sea level are co

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Speaker 1: founding team is thinking about, you know, what does the

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Speaker 1: next six months look like for us, and that that

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Speaker 1: impacts everyone's business. So I think, you know a lot

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Speaker 1: of founders are just you know, trying to stay conservatives,

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Speaker 1: stay the course, but also be flexible as the next

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Speaker 1: three or four months are gonna be really um follatl

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Speaker 1: when it comes to change. Is it possible startups maybe

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Speaker 1: taking more capital? Do they need? Oh? For sure? All right, well,

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Speaker 1: actually let me I hate that I answered that so strongly.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's a fore shore, but it's

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Speaker 1: certainly proving. Um you know, I think I had written

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Speaker 1: a tweet a week or two ago all caps are

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Speaker 1: saying why is every company in America raising right now?

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Speaker 1: And it actually is my last comment, which is why

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Speaker 1: we're about to enter a period of uncertainty that we've

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Speaker 1: never seen. Um So, if you're a company that's performing

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Speaker 1: relatively well to plan or or even beating it, why

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Speaker 1: not do it now before we enter into this kind

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Speaker 1: of desert of uncertainty. Um So, I certainly understand that,

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Speaker 1: but I will make sure I address your question, which is,

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Speaker 1: do I think companies are raising too much money? I

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Speaker 1: think some companies certainly are. Um there's this mentality um

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Speaker 1: and and just kind of a behavioral norm that happens

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Speaker 1: when you raise enough capital to have twelve to maybe

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Speaker 1: eighteen months of cushion and you can just crank that

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Speaker 1: business out. You're thinking about efficiencies, You're always thinking about

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Speaker 1: your balance and your bottom line. Where sometimes if you

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Speaker 1: raise so much capital ahead of plan, you know, not

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Speaker 1: only are you sitting there thinking that what am I

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Speaker 1: gonna do with all this extra money I raised, but

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Speaker 1: your investors are also thinking, well, look the I R

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Speaker 1: our clock is still ticking on my money that I

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Speaker 1: gave you. I need to generate a return faster. So

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Speaker 1: now we we start adding onto fits and variable costs

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Speaker 1: at a rate that wasn't necessarily the original plan. Right.

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Speaker 1: And then you know the term that I always uses.

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Speaker 1: I never want to put a founder or an executive

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Speaker 1: team in a position and of doing unnatural things. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, an expel plan is just numbers and excel.

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Speaker 1: But if your balance sheet is now boosted to a

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Speaker 1: point where you know it doesn't reflect the plan, now

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Speaker 1: now everyone feels it's pressured to change, and that's not

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Speaker 1: good for either side. Or be black meals seeing people

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Speaker 1: of other ethnicities and backgrounds realize the value of our sauce.

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Speaker 1: They capitalize what we create, they monetize the culture we

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Speaker 1: move as a creative I'm interested in the take of

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Speaker 1: a VC like Elliott on how we as the global

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Speaker 1: leaders and was Hadden music, fashion, food, sports and more

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Speaker 1: might finally be able to realize the reward in the

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Speaker 1: marketplace for the ideas that we bring to the table.

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Speaker 1: Elliot Robinson speaks on it. So I'm gonna take a

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Speaker 1: thirty thousand feet and then probably go down to like

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Speaker 1: ten thousand maybe and on the street level, UM, I

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Speaker 1: think thirty thousand feet view. UM. What I'm really excited

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Speaker 1: by is the growing number of enterprise software and cloud

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Speaker 1: software opportunities that I'm seeing founded by UM, not just

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Speaker 1: black founderis, but UM latin X founders and women founderis. Traditionally,

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it actually makes a lot of sense. UM.

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Speaker 1: At least the last five to ten years, a lot

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Speaker 1: of the start up opportunities have been focused at UH

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Speaker 1: consumer opportunities because while founders that look like me and

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Speaker 1: you are underserved, you know, consumers are underserved. Right, there's

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Speaker 1: this this age old adage. You know. I started my

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Speaker 1: career to all black venture firm in DC called Singcom

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Speaker 1: Venture Partners, and we were the first investors in bt SO,

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Speaker 1: first investor in bt UM. You know, Bob Johnson says

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Speaker 1: all the time that's Sincom and HERB Wilkinson exists, b

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Speaker 1: T one exists, we're the only investor who served the

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Speaker 1: board from first investment until it was sold to Viacom.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, in the middle of that, we

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Speaker 1: invested in Kathy Hughes who started Radio one in TV

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Speaker 1: one all right. You know a lot of people said

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Speaker 1: to us, well, there's already b t like why on

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Speaker 1: earth would you invest in radio one TV one, And

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Speaker 1: we said, dude, I mean, you know, we're talking about

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Speaker 1: fifteen million people and you give them one channel and

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Speaker 1: then we got three hundred channels serving the rest of

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Speaker 1: the communities. Doesn't make any sense. UM. So you know,

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Speaker 1: I think historic lee because our consumer base is seen

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Speaker 1: as one very homogeneous, which it's not. There's all different

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Speaker 1: types of lanes and tide of the black consumer opportunity.

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Speaker 1: But because we're under served, there's just so much like

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Speaker 1: clear obvious opportunity to go after the consumer market. But

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Speaker 1: I think in the enterprise space, you know, it's it's

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Speaker 1: like it would take a whole another zoom to really

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Speaker 1: break down my views on on UM why we're just

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Speaker 1: naming these opportunities and these on noors now. But I'm

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Speaker 1: really excited by the diversity UM that's influencing kind of

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Speaker 1: cloud and enterprise software. And that's where I as a

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Speaker 1: cloud investor UM and spending my time now on the

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Speaker 1: on the later stage investor. We can talk about that

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Speaker 1: a little bit, but you know, I I spend a

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Speaker 1: lot of time with the early side, even down to

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Speaker 1: the seed team of going through all the lists of

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Speaker 1: UM kind of black and brown founders going after enterprise

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Speaker 1: and make sure that that vessels meeting with UM and

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Speaker 1: making sure that we're we're funding. We just funded one

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Speaker 1: that we haven't announced yet, which I'm really excited about

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Speaker 1: coming around, but one is certainly not enough. UM. You know,

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Speaker 1: we don't have a set number, but in my own mind,

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Speaker 1: I've got a number of where I'd like to see

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Speaker 1: the portfolio go and I'm really excited about that. On

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Speaker 1: the street level, UM, you know, I just I think

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Speaker 1: that we and then this is gonna I want to

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Speaker 1: make this very nuanced. I think that one thing that

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Speaker 1: has to change on the street level is like we

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Speaker 1: as a UM underserved entrepreneur base and underrepresented investor base,

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Speaker 1: we just gotta think bigger UM. And And that's like

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Speaker 1: a really nuanced thing because sometimes people hear me say

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Speaker 1: that and they take it the wrong way. I'm not

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Speaker 1: saying that we're not thinking big now. It's just that, um,

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Speaker 1: many times we're just trying to get from point zero

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Speaker 1: or point nega in one because the whole industry is

396
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Speaker 1: backed against us to like getting through those first blocking

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Speaker 1: and tackling, and we got to do that right, Like,

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Speaker 1: we've got to focus on getting out of the blocks, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, getting the business up, getting the first customers,

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Speaker 1: getting the first users. But sometimes we focus so much

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Speaker 1: on that that we don't think about how big of

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Speaker 1: an opportunity we are, not just on the consumer side,

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Speaker 1: but enterprise technology and now even on the frontier tech side.

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Speaker 1: So I think on the street level, I spend a

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Speaker 1: lot of my time even with early stage entrepreneurs that

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Speaker 1: as a growth investor I can't invest in now. And

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Speaker 1: when we're tweaking the deck, of course, the blocking and

408
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Speaker 1: tackling has to be there. How are we going to

409
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Speaker 1: spend the first million, how do we get the m

410
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Speaker 1: v P of how do we get the first paying customers?

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Speaker 1: But oftentimes we leave out the big picture of how

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Speaker 1: big of an opportunity all of these things are for us. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I will really feel great when we're not

414
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Speaker 1: just talking about the first um Black entrepreneurs at raised

415
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Speaker 1: ten million dollars, but the first exit for a billion

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Speaker 1: foot and it's coming. I'm just saying that sometimes you

417
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Speaker 1: have to um speak it into existence and also reverse

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Speaker 1: engineer into that success. If we say that every time

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Speaker 1: we raise a million dollars, we're looking at a half

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Speaker 1: billion to a billion dollar opportunity. You know, if that's

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Speaker 1: letter Z and we know what letter A is, let's

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Speaker 1: let's really map out the letters in between all I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes we um we underestimate how big of an

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Speaker 1: opportunity all these things are. So on a street level,

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Speaker 1: That's where I spend a lot of my time, particularly

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Speaker 1: working with early stage founders that I'm just not positioning

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Speaker 1: to invest in yet because I want to see them

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Speaker 1: get there to that billion dollars, that Series B, Series C.

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Speaker 1: Still thinking about that billion dollars bus opportunity. I love

430
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: that we're having this conversation because you know, we don't

431
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: have this conversation enough at at this high level of

432
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,680
Speaker 1: you know, in late stage investing, because it's so hard

433
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: to get capital in the first place, and for for

434
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,880
Speaker 1: black founders and to that in that regard, what has

435
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: to happen in our ecosystem for more black founders to

436
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 1: get to Series A, because getting that seed is difficult.

437
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:09,680
Speaker 1: But you know they're we're out here in the in

438
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: the seed stage getting the Series A and been beyond that.

439
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: I mean, it's there's very few of us in that regardless.

440
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: So what has to happen in the ecosystem for us

441
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: to get to Series A? See more of us as

442
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: Series A and get post. Yeah, it's a complex question

443
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: and discussion. I mean, look, the reality is for more

444
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,120
Speaker 1: black founders to get to Series A, the venture capital

445
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: industry has to change, like dramatically, um. And that is

446
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: not an excuse for um, you know, underserved founders to

447
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 1: not get to Serious A. But this is a conversation

448
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 1: I have internally here at the fund and perhaps even

449
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: more importantly with our l fs, so our limited partners

450
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,800
Speaker 1: at invest in the State. So you're saying that the

451
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 1: the entrepreneurs are here that are capable, oh one thousand percent.

452
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,120
Speaker 1: I mean we're actually like this, man, Like I don't

453
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 1: know how much time you have. It is something we

454
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: gotta break down. So like, if you think about the

455
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: last six months of conversation, UM, the unfortunate events of uh,

456
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 1: you know, George Floyd and mont Augury, Brianna Taylor, it

457
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 1: goes on has created this um uh kind of this

458
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 1: movement of of venture capital trying to figure out like

459
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: what are we doing wrong? Like why are these founders

460
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: not getting fun to at levels Bestimer included quite frankly,

461
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 1: and um, the one thing I was just writing and

462
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: tweeting about this uh this week, like the black founders

463
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 1: are the most over advised, over cohorted, over mentor and

464
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,480
Speaker 1: over office our folks in the world. And sometimes it's like,

465
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 1: hey man, we just want to lose your money at

466
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 1: the same rate all of our cockade and college capital

467
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: by design is kind of a sort of our investments

468
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: either go sideways or are lost. And many times those

469
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 1: same founders that lost your money into or three years

470
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: come back to the table and you give them money

471
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: again because they learned. So again that doesn't that's not

472
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 1: saying that they're not good founders, but the question is

473
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: how come we're not being given that same kind of

474
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 1: opportunity and credibility. So yes, to your point, um, the

475
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:32,719
Speaker 1: founders exist actually an overabundance. The problem is that, um,

476
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 1: it really takes like a bit of a hearts and

477
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: minds longer conversation inside of the industry to say, like,

478
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: why don't we treat people equably? Right, Like, that's a

479
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: conversation that has been going for a long time, but

480
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: I think in it's certainly been pulled to the forefront

481
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: and then taking a step back, I do think there's

482
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: a lot of responsibility that goes to limited partners or

483
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: what we call LPs. So just to be clear, you know,

484
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: as venture um investors, we manage for the most part,

485
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:09,120
Speaker 1: other people's money, and that can behind net worth people, celebrities,

486
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 1: family offices, but for the most part it's UM kind

487
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 1: of state and federal government funds like pension funds. And

488
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: if we just kind of focus on California, I I

489
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 1: can I can say um with some some pleasure, I'll

490
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: be it measured um that California has kind of been

491
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: on the forefront in terms of diversifying the way by

492
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 1: which they allocate those funds, but it's still kind of

493
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: less than one tenth of one per cent. You know,

494
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: US LP dollars goes into the hands of venture investors

495
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 1: that look like the entrepreneurs that we're talking about, So

496
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 1: they're just like a fundamental mismatch. However, if you think

497
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:50,160
Speaker 1: about a state like California that's super diverse, I don't

498
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: know what the exact number is, but I think it's

499
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,479
Speaker 1: like roughly thirty two or thirty three of the pension

500
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: fund dollars created to then be put in the hands

501
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: of venture investors are created by black and brown people.

502
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: So like it's it's weird, like Robin Hood story and reverse.

503
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: Where we create the dollars, it's then allocated for private

504
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:14,640
Speaker 1: equity and venture capital then not allocated to the people that, um,

505
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,879
Speaker 1: you know, represent how the dollars were created, and then

506
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 1: wealth creation is created in other communities. Like you really

507
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: got to take a second and like think about how

508
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: crazy that is. So it's not saying that like, oh,

509
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 1: there are dollars because they were created off of the

510
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 1: hours and the careers of people that look like us.

511
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,080
Speaker 1: But it kind of is at least that's that's the

512
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 1: mentality and philosophy I had. So I know we veered off,

513
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: but it's just to say that, you know, I I

514
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 1: just I think that, um, not only are our entrepreneurs

515
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 1: over mentor, but many times even our investors are over

516
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: mentor and over courted. Cohorted. I'm really excited by how

517
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: many new faces and backgrounds are getting into the venture

518
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: capital and investment game. But what I fear again is

519
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: when I look at UM, many of my colleagues who

520
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: are needed industry that don't look like us, like, how

521
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 1: can they don't have to go through all these coops,

522
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: you know to get allocated dollars. A lot of these

523
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 1: people come from non traditional backgrounds, have never invested before,

524
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: maybe it invested in the firm for a year or two,

525
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: and now they're off raising big funds UM, and unfortunately,

526
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: we're kind of put in a box. So you know,

527
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: I think I'm hoping UM turns into a bit of

528
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 1: a paradigm shift or a watershed moment for both underserved

529
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: investors of color and certainly in entrepreneurs because where you started, like,

530
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: we're there in abundance. We just have to be played

531
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: by an equal set of rules as the folks that

532
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: don't look like Yeah, and I know the numbers like

533
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: less than a hundred and it might be something like

534
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: seventy five. There's seventy five black vcs who have check

535
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: writing authority UM in these firms, and my friend Richard

536
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: Kirby put out of numbers at those went to Harvard

537
00:29:55,720 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: or Stanford, right, and so you went to more house. Yeah. Um,

538
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: in how do you even get more black vcs in

539
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: the door when a the successful vcs have previous operational experience? Um?

540
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: Are they over index when previous operational experience and be

541
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 1: many come to the table with a check? Yeah for sure. So, um,

542
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: you said a bunch of things there that are really important. Um.

543
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: You know when when all of the unfortunate events that

544
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: we referred to happen kind of March April may beyond,

545
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: it happens to us all the time. Unfortunately. UM, I

546
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: saw a lot of my venture capital peers open these

547
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: office hours, right, they said, like, oh, I'm gonna dedicate um,

548
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: ninety minutes a week for the next six months to

549
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: meet with founders of color objectively A good thing because

550
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: typically like we want to make it into their calendar.

551
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: So what I did, I said, Well, I talked to

552
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: bounders of color all the time, right, Like, just by

553
00:30:57,520 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: the nature of who I am, my networking, what I

554
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: care about. The question is, you know, how can I

555
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: impact the industry as one of the few black partners

556
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: at a at a large venture found with check writing authority.

557
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 1: I kind of flipped it and said, Okay, well, I'm

558
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 1: going to do office hours ninety minutes twice a week

559
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: and speak to any venture fund in the country that

560
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: doesn't have a black investor to really talk through why

561
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: don't you have a black investor UM and what are

562
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 1: the benefits of having a black investor. Venture capital, by

563
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: definition is about um making non consensus investments and really

564
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 1: high performing and high potential entrepreneurs. So, you know, referencing

565
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: my my dear friend Richards analysis, it's the same thing

566
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: that we talked about or I talked to my partners

567
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: here investment, which is if we hire another Caucasian male

568
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: from Harvard and Stanford, like, what's the r O I

569
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: partner with that profile? Like if we don't have those

570
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: networks covered already, then we're not doing our job. So

571
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: I'll say a couple of things. And this is kind

572
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: of the framework of the discussion of these ninety minutes.

573
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: And I think I've talked to now forty three firms,

574
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be putting out at the end of

575
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: the year kind of a medium process and slides around

576
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: best practices, but I'm gonna cherry pick one thing that

577
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: talk to these firms about, which is um, my entire career, uh,

578
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: having interviewed with probably twenty five firms you know, at

579
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: different points of my career, outreach outbound. UM, this term

580
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: of like cultural fit has always been a big thing.

581
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: It's actually I can't stand it. Um, you know, I

582
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: don't bring this up. Yeah, I don't fit the culture

583
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 1: of venture capital. And I guess technically most bounders that

584
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: look like me and you don't fit whatever culture of

585
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: their portfolio, their typical investment. So UM here a bestimer,

586
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: particularly on the growth fund side. We've we've totally built

587
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: in a new hirent philosophy and process and it's something

588
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: I talked to all our venture peers out, which is, um,

589
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: cultural fits gotta go right, that's out. Um. What I

590
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: really care about is values fit and values ALIGNE not

591
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 1: just with the founders, about my colleagues. And I think

592
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 1: if you take a step back and you do some

593
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 1: work to figure out, like what are the values that

594
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: define a really good investor at your firm or in

595
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: my case at Bessemer, that's a different conversation. And when

596
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: we're hiring and when we're interviewing these people, if I'm

597
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 1: aligning for values and I'm not talking about you know,

598
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: do you wear all birds are better? Yeah? I mean

599
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: all birds are attracted to you. Um I wear Jordan's

600
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,719
Speaker 1: to work every day. That's hey, now I can pick

601
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: my foot up right now, you'd see. Yes, I just

602
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 1: uh scored those new bladers on the sneakers atmosphere and

603
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 1: I woke up early at seven as I've been taking

604
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 1: l on the sneakers app By the way, you should

605
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: invest in Nike and make them fix the sneakers at

606
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 1: right if I if I would, I could. Um. So,

607
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: we we eliminate cultural fit. We bring in values fit

608
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: and score candidates on them, and then what we substitute

609
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: in is um something we call cultural ad. That's been

610
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,680
Speaker 1: probably like the most um lightbulb moment for most of

611
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: my close friends who work at heear firms of mind,

612
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,919
Speaker 1: which is like, oh shit, like we've never actually thought

613
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: about that. I don't really care as a venture capitalists

614
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 1: to go deeper into networks and patterns that we know.

615
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: We talk about pattern matching, but like the way we

616
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 1: generate outside of the urns is the pattern matching places

617
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: that we aren't already. Um So we talk about cultural

618
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: ad and if you really do score people on cultural

619
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,239
Speaker 1: AD and this goes for entrepreneurs in your portfolio as well,

620
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: you really start to ask different questions. You know, what

621
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 1: is it unique about your background? What is it about

622
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:50,480
Speaker 1: your perspective, your experience that you bring not just to

623
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 1: the portfolio, but but um, you know, in my case,

624
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 1: to the investment team. And I'll add into it here.

625
00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: So I did go to more House. Um, I'm from

626
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: small town rest in Virginia. My brother went to HbCO

627
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,360
Speaker 1: at Hampton and both my parents were the first integrated

628
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,760
Speaker 1: class Advanderabile. So education is a big thing in my family.

629
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you have to have unque traditional education

630
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,320
Speaker 1: to be a great startup founder. Um. But you know,

631
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: I think what I bring to not just Cestimer, but

632
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: any firm um that I've worked at, and probably the

633
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: broader venture capital industry is just a different perspective, you know.

634
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 1: And then on on like the the venture capital side

635
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 1: we do, you'll hear firms talk a lot about UM

636
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: learnings from the community, which is like putting functional leaders CEOs,

637
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 1: head of sales CFOs from throughout your portfolio of you know,

638
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 1: ten twenty in our case, over two companies together and

639
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,840
Speaker 1: pulling out best practices. But many times if your founder

640
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:57,320
Speaker 1: base isn't diverse, like there's an exchange of learnings and

641
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 1: perspectives that like are just being doubt And not only

642
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 1: does that damage UM or leave kind of opportunity on

643
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 1: the table for underserved and underrepresented founders, but actually it

644
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:12,839
Speaker 1: leaves opportunity on the table for the folks in our

645
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,080
Speaker 1: portfolio where they don't get to see our perspective as operators,

646
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,279
Speaker 1: Like you can't tell me we we don't hustle more

647
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: than anyone else. We've had to our whole lives, Like

648
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 1: we've always been told by our parents, you've gotta be

649
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:26,560
Speaker 1: twice as good as everyone else just to get a

650
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,800
Speaker 1: fair shot. Um So, in terms of like we're underinvested,

651
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,400
Speaker 1: but we still are expected to generate the same return.

652
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:36,920
Speaker 1: There's like an exchange of learning that that even across

653
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: the portfolio, UM, we don't get So the last thing

654
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: I'll say on this, you know, um you mentioned that

655
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: the statistics semi five percent or I'm sorry lesson semi

656
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:52,040
Speaker 1: or seventy five in total venture capitalists have stec riding authority.

657
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 1: That is very true, and I actually think the the

658
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: number might be um way smaller than seventy. Uh it's

659
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 1: check writing authority means different things to different people, but

660
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,880
Speaker 1: luckily the numbers is uh slowly improved. You put up

661
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 1: a tweet a little while ago that I thought it

662
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: was amusing. But at the same time, you know, it'll

663
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:15,680
Speaker 1: make sense why it was a shame to me in

664
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:18,800
Speaker 1: a second. So you said, VC right now is basically

665
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: a never ending episode of ninety day fiance. Tons of

666
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: online dating, mostly people you've never met, who don't need

667
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 1: to share much because they have multiple rings already. And

668
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: while that was amusing, you know what the part of

669
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 1: it and you're saying and you said you ended it

670
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,360
Speaker 1: with and hoping they pick mine. And so what I

671
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,400
Speaker 1: thought was unfortunate about that is when you see our

672
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: counterparts are white, you know, entrepreneurs and etcetera, who may

673
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: have all kinds of term sheets on the table, and

674
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:52,759
Speaker 1: they're just trying to fix you know who they like better,

675
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,439
Speaker 1: you know which terms they like better, etcetera. So they're

676
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: interviewing you and more than you're interviewing them to give

677
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 1: you to give them me when we come to the table,

678
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,880
Speaker 1: we're hoping Elliott picks us to invest in, and we

679
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,720
Speaker 1: have way less in in too many cases, way less

680
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: um leverage to get deal terms that are good for us.

681
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 1: And so while it was amusing, you know, I thought

682
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 1: it was also a shame that we don't come to

683
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: the table with the same you know, hutzpah as as

684
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: they might. And what's your response to that? And how

685
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 1: do we make Elliott And this is no disrespect to you,

686
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: but how do we make you less the prize and

687
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: the startup the prize? Yeah? Sure so. UM, what's interesting

688
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,840
Speaker 1: about that is, Uh, the startup that I've thought about

689
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 1: the most, probably the last month, UM is a startup

690
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 1: led by a dear friend of mine, you know, is

691
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:54,400
Speaker 1: an African American founder. UM. I can't talk about it

692
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: just because I don't want to steal the thunder of

693
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,920
Speaker 1: the company. But they're out raising UM, they're Series C now,

694
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 1: and it was that dynamic. UM. He had multiple offers

695
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 1: on the table UM and two of them were unfortunately

696
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: just kind of higher than I could go on price. UM.

697
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,440
Speaker 1: And like that's the worst situation actually because to your point,

698
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:21,920
Speaker 1: like that's not always the dynamic at the serious C

699
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 1: or D stage where there's another black founder on the

700
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: other side of the table. For me, I'm sitting there, like,

701
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,439
Speaker 1: talk to my wife about it, I talked friends about

702
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,880
Speaker 1: I said, what do I do here? Like the market

703
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 1: is so crazy and the business is performing really well,

704
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: and I've I've actually known this founder now for four years,

705
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,959
Speaker 1: talked to him off cycle. Um, you know, I hope

706
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,399
Speaker 1: he hears this or he'll be laughing at the same time.

707
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: We're texting on the plane and I just couldn't get

708
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,320
Speaker 1: there on price. So I'll say this. That influences that

709
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 1: tweet a bunch, But it also makes me really happy

710
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:58,800
Speaker 1: because if that is the dynamic for him, then I

711
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 1: know the pipeline is coming. UM. Unfortunately, pattern matching at

712
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: the Series C is very different from pattern matching at

713
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 1: the SEE or the Series A, Like that's the unfortunate

714
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: challenge at the SEA, Like, there's more data to work with.

715
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: You know, there's paying customers, there's revenue there, and I think,

716
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:23,759
Speaker 1: you know, it demystifies this disconnect between UM black and

717
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 1: brown founders and the majority of the industry which doesn't

718
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 1: look like them. So just so so I make sure

719
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 1: I address your questionnaire comment. I think that I think

720
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 1: it's getting better. You know, when I when I You know,

721
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 1: I talked to Richard Kirby a lot. He's my closest

722
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: friend and adventure and oddly both of our wives went

723
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: to high school together well before we ever other, So

724
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:46,279
Speaker 1: I talked to him a lot. I talked to him

725
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 1: last night enough. Um, you know, he spends time more

726
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 1: time in the early stage and when we do text,

727
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: like we'll talk about some early stage hot deals that

728
00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 1: are led by founders of color and the dynamic is

729
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: way different than it was um ten years ago. Also

730
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 1: shout out Austin Clements at Sawston and in l A.

731
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: He was tweeting about this other day, which is like

732
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 1: back in the day, you know, particularly and underserved founders

733
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:18,720
Speaker 1: like you felt like you heard about every deal, particularly

734
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:20,880
Speaker 1: a few are black venture capitalists. We're now at a

735
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,719
Speaker 1: place where I don't, which is like good and bad

736
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: because I want to hear about everyone. But it's also

737
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,479
Speaker 1: good because the industry has expanded to the point where

738
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,360
Speaker 1: it's not just like the same ten or fifteen or

739
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 1: maybe even twenty folks that you talk to. It's actually

740
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,480
Speaker 1: more like fifty two hundred and that that bleeds over

741
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: to like, you know, sports and entertainment, where they're getting

742
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 1: into the tech game, or they've got kind of advisors

743
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: and venture capitalists and angel investors that represent them, and

744
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 1: it's kind of increased their umbrella. UM. In terms of

745
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 1: how do we get it there? I hate to throw

746
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: this answer out again, but like there's just a continuing

747
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: hearts and minds come with station that has to happen

748
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: really inside of the venture capital industry. UM. All in

749
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:08,880
Speaker 1: the answer here. You know, I write and speak a

750
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: lot about this thing called diversity theater. UM. It's something

751
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: I've written about for a really long time. You know.

752
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 1: The statistics came out about I think it was Q

753
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:23,759
Speaker 1: three Venture funding UM. And from a diversity standpoint, there's

754
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 1: all these like tweets going out and right and going

755
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 1: around and mentoring and all that, but the numbers haven't

756
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 1: shown up. What I'll say about that is it's unfortunate,

757
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: but it takes some time, Like it takes time to

758
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,160
Speaker 1: actually connect from these office hours to getting to know

759
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 1: your business to making the investments. Unfortunately, those decisions are

760
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,960
Speaker 1: made slower when it comes to us. UM. But I

761
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:48,319
Speaker 1: am you know, I have to hould that book at

762
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: the next quarter. She is different, But in terms of

763
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:54,799
Speaker 1: diversity theater. Um, you know all of us have been

764
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:59,120
Speaker 1: in this place, you know, speaking personally about my venture career,

765
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 1: and then you know, projecting some of the conversations I've

766
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,359
Speaker 1: had with black founders where you know pretty quickly whether

767
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: someone just kind of bullshitting you on this diversity thing, right,

768
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: like we're happy to meet with you, but like you

769
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:17,279
Speaker 1: didn't tell you you mentioned something around like um operating experience.

770
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 1: I'll just put it in my example. As I was

771
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 1: going through my career, I used to always I'm from Virginia. Right,

772
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 1: we use this term called better rock, and that's the

773
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: term is better rock. And what that means is I'll

774
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: put in my own experience. When I was interviewing for

775
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 1: venture roles throughout my career, you would show up and

776
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,000
Speaker 1: the job description would say you need to have x

777
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:43,719
Speaker 1: y z in order to get this job. You would

778
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,439
Speaker 1: have x y Z and then they throw a rock

779
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,840
Speaker 1: and say, go get letter D. It wasn't on the

780
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 1: job description, but like, go get letter D. Then you

781
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:53,319
Speaker 1: go get letter D. You come back and they throw

782
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,239
Speaker 1: that rock and they say go get letter T. Right.

783
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:58,799
Speaker 1: And I think that happens with founders to where they

784
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: you know, a venture Bungle put on the website this

785
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:03,239
Speaker 1: is what we need to see to make a seed

786
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,080
Speaker 1: investment or serious investment. And you're looking at your debt,

787
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,319
Speaker 1: you are a product some of your early tract and say, man,

788
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 1: I've got all that, and then within fifteen minutes they're

789
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,279
Speaker 1: telling you you need to go find something else. That's

790
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:16,960
Speaker 1: when you should know, and that's when you don't want

791
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 1: to go affects that rock. So we've got to we've

792
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,080
Speaker 1: got to get to a point as an industry where

793
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 1: we stopped throwing that rock. And fortunately, I think the

794
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,320
Speaker 1: community is talking about it enough. Where as as the

795
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: faces become more diverse and check writing authority, you know

796
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:38,719
Speaker 1: where to go. But there's actually some um faces and

797
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 1: venture that don't look like us that are making these bets,

798
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 1: treating people efitably, and we actually need to like elevate

799
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: them too and and speak about them because those are

800
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:50,399
Speaker 1: the folks you want to spend the time with. Don't

801
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:53,800
Speaker 1: don't waste your time infection that rock is the answer

802
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,960
Speaker 1: to create our own firms. I think it's both um

803
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,880
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you why. And then that's a great question.

804
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: So UM, as someone who's been doing this fifteen years,

805
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,800
Speaker 1: I started my career to all black firms. Still today

806
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:16,400
Speaker 1: the largest black interer firm in the country to ever exist.

807
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:19,719
Speaker 1: Our Fund five was a two seventy five million dollar

808
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: fun um, so a huge part of the equation is

809
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: certainly starting our own firms. However, until the LP community

810
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 1: um expands the aperture, my big fear, having started my

811
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 1: career in Series A and Series BE and seeing successes

812
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,760
Speaker 1: there is you know you, um, you kind of cross

813
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 1: that chasm of a Series A, Series B founder of color,

814
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: and then you show up in the series C and

815
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:50,640
Speaker 1: it's like, well, who's here to talk to you? Like

816
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:54,919
Speaker 1: who who can actually right that twenty thirty million dollar check?

817
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,759
Speaker 1: That world gets real spooky um. And I can say

818
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:02,279
Speaker 1: that as a dedicated effect on the investor. You know,

819
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 1: we talked about people with check grunting authority. I can

820
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 1: name three um black venture capitalist later stage that I

821
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:14,160
Speaker 1: know who have checked writing authority. That's like three um.

822
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 1: So you know, it goes back to that tweet and

823
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 1: this experience I had with my dear friend who thank

824
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,160
Speaker 1: thankfully he's about to announce his seriously investment or his

825
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:27,359
Speaker 1: seriously around Like you feel that pressure where it's like damn.

826
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: Unlike one or three people that can write that check,

827
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 1: I can't write all of them because like there's a

828
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: larger pipeline. And thankfully for him, he got an exceptional

829
00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: deal and a great investor around the table. So I think, yes,

830
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:44,800
Speaker 1: it is very important that we um master our masters

831
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: and determine our own faith. But unfortunately the LP community

832
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: is very happy to back us at kind of this

833
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:55,839
Speaker 1: ten million to maybe forty million dollar fund size level.

834
00:46:56,200 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: Now there's been a couple of breakout successes. Um. You

835
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 1: know it kind of like fifty to level UM. So

836
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 1: it's it's expanding, um. But for someone like myself, like

837
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 1: my average check right now, however, somewhere between like thirty

838
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: and fifty UM, And we've got to make sure that

839
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 1: we've got people that can treat entrepreneurs effortably through the

840
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: entire lifestyle. Um. Again, all the seed stuff is bubbling up,

841
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: has been the last ten years, particularly the last two

842
00:47:28,160 --> 00:47:31,920
Speaker 1: series as has certainly gotten better. UM. But man, it

843
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 1: is a it is a ghost TM for me when

844
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:37,879
Speaker 1: I go to growth stage confidence. But I know it's

845
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:39,839
Speaker 1: coming right, Like if you know the investors are there

846
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: in the seed in the A and they're raising their bees.

847
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 1: I know as they come to the seed, I'm hoping

848
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:48,040
Speaker 1: that I'm uniquely positioned to see all um and hopefully

849
00:47:48,080 --> 00:48:06,839
Speaker 1: support those entrepreneur business scale h Black Tech Green Money

850
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: is a production of Black of the Afro Tech in

851
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: the Black Effect podcast Network and I Hired Media. Was

852
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:15,680
Speaker 1: produced by Morgan Dabon and Me with Lucas, with additional

853
00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:19,879
Speaker 1: production support by Sarah Ergon and Rose McLucas. Special thank

854
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,919
Speaker 1: you to Michael Davis if Ne's Serrano. Learn more about

855
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,359
Speaker 1: my guests, other technis reppers and innovatives at afro tech

856
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:29,040
Speaker 1: dot com. Enjoy your Black Tech Green Money. Share this

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Speaker 1: with somebody, Go get your money. Piece of love.